


If Nightmares Were Real

by MidnightxBluexBlack



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-30 18:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18320600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightxBluexBlack/pseuds/MidnightxBluexBlack
Summary: "That dream again, but somehow, not a dream at all. If it had been a proper nightmare, then his dream eaters would have devoured that particular dream long ago. And even more than that, Sora felt like it was real..."Set after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora has a recurring nightmare that chills him to his core.





	If Nightmares Were Real

**Author's Note:**

> It's important to note that this fic is working off the idea that Riku's act of self-sacrifice (ie, sacrificing himself to protect Sora from the demon tide in the Keyblade Graveyard), is wiped from everyone's memories after Sora's dive to the heart where he saves everyone from the Lich. Since Sora kind of 'forced' time to reset and a different set of events came to pass, Riku's sacrifice never took place, but the heart still remembers the pain of his loss. 
> 
> Also, please know, I used Riku's Japanese dialogue in the beginning scene because it's my preference. I like that dialogue better and I think it goes more with how I envision Riku's character. 
> 
> Also, I didn't really get to mention it in the context of the writing, but I kind of envision Sora and Riku in a newly established, 'still getting used to this' kind of romantic relationship. 
> 
> I normally write more introspective works, so this is a little different for me. Hope you like it.

_Bump bump_

  
“We’ve lost.”

  
Dirt stained with tears ground up beneath shaking fingers.

  
_Bump bump_

  
“It’s over.”

  
The roar of the massive demon tide bearing down, reverberating in his chest, making his heart stutter.

  
_Bump bump_

  
“Sora, I believe in you.”

  
The crunch of footsteps moving slowly away from him.

  
_Bump bump_

  
“You won’t give up.”

  
Sora looked up, his eyes wide. Through his tears, he could see Riku walking away from him, his shoulders set as he adjusted Braveheart in his grip.

  
It was like a scene from a nightmare, and things were only getting worse. Sora felt powerless to stop it. His strength was gone. His legs wouldn’t move.

  
Riku was alone, the monstrous demon tide spiraling through the air toward him. Time seemed to slow down, the whole universe seemed to pause, holding its breath as though the only thing that mattered was the buildup of this final moment, and Sora’s heart froze in his chest.

  
He saw Riku take a breath, steeling himself.

  
And then they collided.

  
Riku stood firm, his arm was steady, Braveheart held before him as it cut through the torrent of heartless surrounding him, and it seemed as though Riku’s whole being was bathed in light in the midst of such an onslaught of darkness.

  
Sora’s breath caught in his throat. For a brief moment, it seemed as though Riku might be able to hold the darkness at bay.

  
But then Sora saw the tendrils of darkness that were slowly wrapping around Riku’s arms, around his legs, around all of him, engulfing him. The darkness was overtaking him, devouring him whole until—

  
Riku’s body was destroyed, overtaken by darkness, and Sora’s world shattered.

  
The dark tide was plummeting toward him, and Sora prepared to meet his fate, arms held up before him—

***   ***   ***

  
Sora woke up, brilliant blue eyes wide and lined with panic as he shot upright in his bed. He took down deep, erratic gulps of air, running his fingers mindlessly through unruly brown spikes of hair.

  
That dream again…

  
Sora forced himself to calm down, shutting his eyes and controlling his breathing, taking slow, deep breaths of air, holding it for a moment, and then slowly releasing. In and out. In… and out, until finally he was thinking more clearly.

  
That dream again, but somehow, not a dream at all. If it had been a proper nightmare, then his dream eaters would have devoured that particular dream long ago. And even more than that, Sora _felt_ like it was _real_. He couldn’t place it, couldn’t remember anything like that happening when they fought Xehanort in the Keyblade Graveyard before, couldn’t even fathom the idea of Riku—

  
Sora gasped, clutching his chest. His heart physically felt in pain, and the corners of his eyes prickled and stung with the moisture from unshed tears.

  
Riku!

  
Sora needed to see Riku right now, needed to see him alive and hole and full of warm, bright light just like he belonged. Needed to touch him and hold him and feel that he was real.

  
Sora scrambled out of bed, throwing his blankets aside, pillows falling to the floor, and was surprised by just how badly his hands were shaking.

  
Quietly, he tip-toed across the cold stone floor that made up the greater majority of Master Yen Sid’s tower, carefully pushing open the heavy wooden door at the entrance of his bedroom and creeping out onto the landing. Riku’s room was upstairs on the floor above him, the two of them sleeping over in the tower tonight so they could help oversee some of Kairi and Lea’s new keyblade training the next day.

  
Uncomfortable and alone in the dark of the tower, Sora took the stairs two at a time, bounding up the spiraling staircase as quickly and quietly as he could, though he came up short once he reached Riku’s landing. Sora’s hand hesitated just above the old bronze doorknob, reaching out but not quite touching, like so many things in his life.

  
Now that he had come all the way here, he felt pretty silly. He knew better than anyone just how elusive sleep was for Riku on some nights, and now the idea of waking Riku up and interrupting that precious sleep for nothing more than a scary dream felt so… childish.

  
It seemed the decision was going to be taken out of his hands, however, when the door to Riku’s room suddenly swung open before him, revealing Riku himself standing on the other side. His silver hair was disheveled and glinting in the moonlight, and he still looked half asleep, but he was there, solid and real and right in front of him. Sora’s heart swelled, and suddenly he could feel his eyes welling up again.

  
“Sora…? What are you doing up this late?” Riku questioned, interrupting his thoughts, his concern for Sora overriding even his own sleepiness.

  
“I… couldn’t sleep,” Sora admitted sheepishly, shifting his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other as he rubbed his nose and offered Riku a shy smile. “I had a bad dream…”

  
“A bad dream?” Riku echoed, eyebrows shooting up in concern even as the corners of his mouth turned down into a frown. “But—the dream eaters…”

  
“Yeah, I know, right? And you didn’t sense that anything was wrong, either, did you?” Sora questioned, trying his hardest not to sound accusatory, dreading the stricken look that would appear on Riku’s face if he though Sora was blaming him for not noticing the nightmare.

  
“Nothing. I didn’t sense anything,” Riku nodded, his frown deepening so much anyway that Sora was afraid his mouth would fall right off his face. “That’s so weird… Do you want to tell me about it?” Riku offered, holding Sora in his gaze.

  
“Not… really…” Sora’s eyes pointed down, watching his feet as he kicked aimlessly at a loose stone in the floor, his shoulders drooping. How could he even start to tell Riku about such a dream?

  
“Then… do you want to come in?”

  
Sora’s head shot up, eyes wide when he heard those words. Riku had taken a step back, away from the door, to create enough space for Sora to slip past him and enter the room. He was, however, very pointedly avoiding eye contact with Sora, staring off toward the ceiling, and the very tips of Riku’s ears were a lovely, rosy pink.

  
“Are you… blushing, Riku? Sora questioned gleefully, unable to stop the sudden smirk that was quickly forming on his lips.

  
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Riku frowned, still avoiding Sora’s gaze, and Sora didn’t miss Riku’s silent appeal of ‘please don’t tease me,’ that hung in the air around his words.

  
“If you say so,” Sora crossed his arms behind the back of his head, keeping his tone light, words speaking the promise that he wouldn’t keep poking fun at Riku’s expense. “So… can I still come in?”

  
“Yeah,” Riku responded, gratified and relieved. He stepped back further, and Sora stepped into the room past him, diving across the room and into Riku’s bed while Riku took his time closing the door behind them.

  
“Mmm, it smells like you,” Sora mused out loud, watching Riku approach from where he had only too happily taken over Riku’s pillows.

  
“Well… it _is_ my bed,” Riku murmured awkwardly, sitting down on the edge of the bed and coaxing Sora into scooching over enough to make room for him as well.

  
It took a bit of effort for the two of them to find a comfortable position together on the narrow twin mattress, the bedrooms in Master Yen Sid’s tower clearly having been designed to be more functional than comfortable, and it didn’t help that neither of the two boys were quite as small as they had been the last time they had shared a bed together.

  
After a few long minutes of struggling, they ended up spooning, Riku’s back resting pressed up against Sora’s chest, Sora’s arms wrapped loosely around Riku’s waist and their legs tangled up together.

  
“Shouldn’t I be the one holding you?” Riku questioned, and Sora once again couldn’t keep the grin off of his face at the sight of the dark blush that ran all the way up the back of Riku’s neck and ears, all so close to him now. “You’re the one who had the bad dream, after all.”

  
“But I _like_ holding you,” Sora answered easily, burying his nose into the back of Riku’s soft, silver locks and heaving a contented sigh just to prove his point.

  
“If you say so,” Riku huffed gently, and the softness in his tone told Sora that Riku really didn’t mind being the little spoon after all. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

  
Sora didn’t answer right away, unsure of whether or not he was able to share that part of himself, even now, with Riku held safely and securely in his arms. Then again, he realized, he’d never hidden any part of his heart from Riku before, and the thought of starting to do so now left an awful, acrid taste in his mouth.

  
“Promise you won’t laugh?” Sora asked tentatively, his voice small, vulnerable.

  
“Promise,” Riku’s voice answered him readily, serious and steady. Of course, Riku would never have thought of laughing at something that Sora found so frightening.

  
Sora took a deep breath, and started slowly. His words came out as a sluggish trickle at first, afraid of letting go, but soon he was pouring his whole heart out to Riku, telling him everything: the dream, and all the pain, the anxiety, the terror that came with it. Riku listened to his whole story without interrupting, silently and faithfully taking in every one of Sora’s words, absorbing them like a sponge.

  
“I don’t know what it is, Riku,” Sora finally concluded, his words practically begging for Riku to provide the answer, like he always did. “It feels so _real_ , and I can feel in my heart that it’s more than just a dream. Like, somehow, some way, I really did lose you like that when we fought in the Keyblade Graveyard. It’s as though the memory isn’t there anymore, but my heart still remembers…”

  
By now, Riku had turned around in Sora’s arms so that they were facing each other, and now he leaned forward, pressing his forehead tenderly against Sora’s, catching his gaze with his ocean eyes, and bringing his hand up to cup Sora's cheek.

  
“Even if that did happen before… Or even if it didn’t… I’m here with you now. I’m alive.” Riku’s voice reassured him, his voice warm, calm and dependable, and everything Sora needed him to be. “And even if something does happen, if I get hurt, or get lost. You’ll come for me. Until now, you’ve always brought me back in the end, haven’t you?”

  
“Yeah…” Sora’s answer was quiet as he thought over how true those words really were. He had helped Riku come back from the darkness, brought him home to the Destiny Islands after searching through worlds upon worlds. Home would never be home if Riku wasn’t with him, and Sora knew he would always look for Riku, until they could return together.

  
“And I’ll always bring you back, too,” Riku spoke next, his words an unspoken promise between them, and Sora knew, all the way down to his soul, that Riku would always keep that promise. He’d kept it during the year Sora spent in sleep, while Namine pieced his memories back together. He’d kept it during their Mark of Mastery exam, when Sora became hopelessly lost in his nightmares. And he’d kept it, even up to the brink of death, when Sora was nearly lost after bringing Kairi home.

  
“Yeah,” Sora agreed, more confident this time, giving Riku a smile before snuggling in against him. Suddenly, his burden felt lighter, his worries farther away, and he was feeling sleepier than ever. “You’re right, Riku. As long as we have each other, we’ll always be able to come home.”

  
“You got it,” Riku returned gently, wrapping his arms carefully around Sora and pulling him in close. Tucked up against Riku like this, Sora could just barely hear Riku’s heart beating steadily in his chest, and he snuggled in closer, his own heart thrumming with contentedness, surrounded by such warmth. He’d never felt more whole than with Riku by his side, and he knew Riku felt the same.

  
“Get some sleep, Sora.” Riku’s voice drifted down to him, and he felt Riku’s lips press lightly against the top of his head.

  
“You, too, Riku…” Sora returned, though he didn’t really know if he got the words out, already fading back into sleep, his nightmares now already far away.

  
Riku was here, and Sora slept, knowing he would only have good dreams.


End file.
